EDIT: Dr Disrespect has made a full statement regarding the ban.
Twitch abruptly permabanned one of its biggest names (Guy Beahm a.k.a. Dr Disrespect) from their platform back in 2020 without explanation. Four years later, two former Twitch employees have now spoken up, alleging that he was banned for sexting with a minor through the Twitch Whispers app and attempting to meet up with her at TwitchCon.
This came two years after a settled lawsuit between Twitch and Beahm, where neither party admitted to any wrongdoing, and his contract was paid.
Other notes and links:
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The Twitter post made by former Twitch employee, Cody Conners (@evoli)
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Esports journalist Rod “Slasher” Breslau (@slasher), who previously tweeted that he had been told by ‘credible sources’ about why Beahm was banned, but couldn’t say anything due to the sensitivity of the subject, has also corroborated what Cody Conners confirmed.
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The other former Twitch employee who spoke to the Verge asked to remain anonymous.
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Response from Dr Disrespect (@DrDisrespect) via Twitter denying any wrongdoing.
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Midnight Society (@12am) announcing on Twitter that they have cut all ties with Dr Disrespect following these allegations. This is an indie game studio that the Doc was a co-founder of.
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Turtle Beach have seemingly dropped their partnership with Dr Disrespect. All of his branded merch has been removed from their website.
So he was messaging a minor and Twitch just got him off their platform and nothing more happened? No repercussions for what he was allegedly doing from a legal standpoint?
Yeah well the guy was a fucking asshole, this is to nones shock
Shocking the guy who was ‘playing’ a dumass ragelord ‘character’ turned out to be a POS in real life.
It’s important to be said that you have to be very careful when playing a satire character, because if you’re not you will just become the satire character. Larry the Cable Guy is not even from the south. If you’re doing something ironically or you like something ironically you have to make sure that it’s something that you’re okay with doing unironically or that you really take care to separate yourself from that thing in certain ways otherwise you will start to believe, like, and/or do those things unironically
As Kurt Vonnegut put it in Mother Night: We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.
Allegedly.
Edit 1: Downvotes for not jumping to a conclusion with no actual proof. Okey dokey.
Edit 2: I hadn’t seen his post on Twitter that was made around the same time as my comment.
EDIT: Dr Disrespect has made a full statement.
THE TWITCH BAN
Hello, I’d like to make a quick statement…
Lets cut the fucking bullshit, as you know there’s no filter with me. I’ve always been up front and real with you guys on anything that I can be up front about, and I’m always willing to accept responsibility… which is why I’m here now.
First and foremost I do want to apologize to everyone in my community as well as those close to me, my team, and everyone at Midnight Society Game Studio.
A lot of people have been left in the dark about what happened yesterday with midnight society and I, and we made the painful decision collectively, to have me step down. Our team is full of incredibly talented and good people that have high career ambitions and families and i’d never want jeopardize the culture we have carefully crafted.
Everyone has been wanting to know why I was banned from twitch, but for reasons outside of my control, I was not allowed to say anything for the last several years. Now that two former twitch employees have publicly disclosed the accusations, I can now tell you my side of the story regarding the ban.
Were there twitch whisper messages with an individual minor back in 2017? The answer is yes. Were there real intentions behind these messages, the answer is absolutely not. These were casual, mutual conversations that sometimes leaned too much in the direction of being inappropriate, but nothing more. Nothing illegal happened, no pictures were shared, no crimes were committed, I never even met the individual. I went through a lengthy arbitration regarding a civil dispute with twitch and that case was resolved by a settlement. Let me be clear, it was not a criminal case against me and no criminal charges have ever been brought against me.
Now, from a moral standpoint I’ll absolutely take responsibility. I should have never entertained these conversations to begin with. That’s on me. That’s on me as an adult, a husband and a father. It should have never happened. I get it. I’m not perfect and I’ll fucking own my shit. This was stupid.
Now, with all this said, don’t get it fucking mistaken, I’ve seen all the remarks and labels being throw around so loosely. Social media is a destruction zone. I’m no fucking predator or pedophile. Are you kidding me? Anyone that truely knows me fucking knows where I stand on those things with those types of people. Fuck that. That’s a different level of disgust that I fucking hate even hearing about. Don’t be labeling me as the worst of the worst with your exaggerations. Get the fuck outta here with that shit.
But I think I’ve said what I needed to say regarding the ban itself. That’s it. That’s why twitch made the decision in 2020.
To my team, community, industry friends that have supported me, I apologize, I wish I could’ve said all this sooner. You guys have always showed me and my family love and support throughout all these years we love you guys like you can’t imagine. I have the fucking best community and circle. If any of this has made you uncomfortable, I get it. You don’t have to support me anymore but just know you have always been greatly appreciated.
But trust me when I say this…to all my haters that live and breath social media with zero real life experience, I don’t give a fuck about you.
Finally, if you’re uncomfortable with this entire statement and think I’m a piece of shit, that’s fine. But I’m not fucking going anywhere. I’m not the same guy that made this mistake all those years ago. I’m taking an extended vacation with my family as mentioned on stream and I’m coming back with a heavy weight off my shoulders.
They want me to disappear… yeah fucking right.
Such a fucking sleazebag. A few hours ago he’s said all accusations against him are completely false, but now he’s figured out there’s no coming back, because his money is going away, and he’s trying to pull the rug back. Fuck directly off.
Anyone who ever liked watching this narcissistic pedo is beyond my understanding. What he’s saying isn’t even damage control. He immediately turned it around, and made himself the victim
Zero receipts, entire essay with little to no point being made, starts off talking about how honest, responsible and how much he totally hates pedophiles. While posting an admission to sexting a minor, years after telling the world he’d sue Twitch for a ban that he let people speculate for years so he could avoid responsibility.
Unless he shows the world what exactly he texted the minor soon, this statement is one hell of a self inflicted wound for his case.